Tom Mills - an unedited interview on Katherine Mansfield [poor audio quality throughout]
Part 1 - An unidentified man interviews veteran Wellington journalist Tom Mills about his recollections of Kathleen Beauchamp (Katherine Mansfield) He talks about getting to know her over an 18 month period. He had been editing the literary page of Wellington newspaper The New Zealand Mail, which took submissions from young writers.
He tells how Harold Beauchamp asked his advice on a possible writing career for his daughter Kathleen.
At Beauchamp's request he says he met with the then 17-year-old Kathleen in Carroll's Tea Rooms in Wellington and appraised several poems and short stories, suggesting various publications where she could submit her work.
He says a number of her works were then accepted and published in Australia, London and New York.
He says he used to meet her in Oriental Bay and walk and talk about her future, which was focussed on going back to London. He told her he didn't personally like her writing, which she took badly.
Part 2 [A number of short, unedited cuts - poor audio quality. ] He describes Kathleen Beauchamp's style of dress and appearance and her great self-confidence.
He says her father told him he never really knew his own daughter. He comments on a conversation he had with her about her "research" on sexual matters, which he thought dangerous.
In an anecdote which he says is 'not for broadcast', he recounts receiving a letter from her in Fielding, in which she told him she was being blackmailed. He turned the matter over to the police who he says deported the man involved.
He says Mansfield was one of the first 'sexy writers' which accounts for some of her success. He says he tried to warn her off her involvement with cellist Arnold Trowell. He gives his opinion of her later career and other recollections about her strong desire to return to London. He says he told her she was a genius and she didn't seemed fazed at all by his praise.
He ends by saying the Beauchamp family were all very keen cricketers.